HTML Gateway [Dev Thread]

[Feebs]

So, how indepth will the TF mechanic be? I like TF's so, having control over changing characters coming through a gate is like

Short answer - long term lots of ability to transform characters, but nothing granular and outside of the family probably not too many options per individual.

Longer answer -

Right now it's mostly going to be with the family members and initially is genderswap for the two males. I intend to add youngify/mature to this mix, and have contemplated adding the ability to change to an alt or bimbo actress. However, the latter would likely be very late in development given the sheer amount of scenes required for so many different actresses. I am open to suggestions on transformation options too.

Currently, two male characters can be genderswapped, though neither have any lewd content atm. If you revisit central with them while genderswapped, you will see there's another option disabled and a warning about "limited options". I wanted that limited-options warning to be immediately meaningful by showing an an unavailable choice and to give an idea of what's going to be available later. Screenies in the spoiler.

Spoiler

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In terms of more granular control, there isn't likely to be anything. The transformation options for now will always be changing to a different actress and something relatively drastic. I won't be for example be saying X goes in to get a facelift and boobjob and come out as a completely different actress - I want it to be clear the changes themselves are large enough to warrant another actress. I have no intention to add additional male options at this time, but the male options currently available will be used for optional MMF threesomes & MMFF foursomes (none in game yet, nor planned for the short term - in fact the only MMFF planned at all atm is Elsie & Liliian but I haven't really looked for any scenes beyond that yet).

Ideally I'd like to add at least one option to all characters, but that's probably a bit ambitious at this time, so short term it will be the close family and a few others due to storied events. Super long term, I'd obviously like a good number of options per individual.

If you've played College Daze, I'd like to go for that vibe, but with more transformation options per individual.

I have no intentions of any MC transformation at this time, but there will be other abilities he gets later as his power and influence grow.

While transformation will be a tag, I wouldn't class it as a game-defining feature as all lewd-content for it will be optional. That said, I will be focusing on content for female versions of male characters primarily with the male counterparts getting their content much later. The whole transformation stuff is pivotal to the story, so even if you choose not to indulge in it yourself, there will be lots of mention of it having happened.

 

[Dropdude]

Short answer - long term lots of ability to transform characters, but nothing granular and outside of the family probably not too many options per individual.

Longer answer -

Right now it's mostly going to be with the family members and initially is genderswap for the two males. I intend to add youngify/mature to this mix, and have contemplated adding the ability to change to an alt or bimbo actress. However, the latter would likely be very late in development given the sheer amount of scenes required for so many different actresses. I am open to suggestions on transformation options too.

Currently, two male characters can be genderswapped, though neither have any lewd content atm. If you revisit central with them while genderswapped, you will see there's another option disabled and a warning about "limited options". I wanted that limited-options warning to be immediately meaningful by showing an an unavailable choice and to give an idea of what's going to be available later. Screenies in the spoiler.

Spoiler

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In terms of more granular control, there isn't likely to be anything. The transformation options for now will always be changing to a different actress and something relatively drastic. I won't be for example be saying X goes in to get a facelift and boobjob and come out as a completely different actress - I want it to be clear the changes themselves are large enough to warrant another actress. I have no intention to add additional male options at this time, but the male options currently available will be used for optional MMF threesomes & MMFF foursomes (none in game yet, nor planned for the short term - in fact the only MMFF planned at all atm is Elsie & Liliian but I haven't really looked for any scenes beyond that yet).

Ideally I'd like to add at least one option to all characters, but that's probably a bit ambitious at this time, so short term it will be the close family and a few others due to storied events. Super long term, I'd obviously like a good number of options per individual.

If you've played College Daze, I'd like to go for that vibe, but with more transformation options per individual.

I have no intentions of any MC transformation at this time, but there will be other abilities he gets later as his power and influence grow.

While transformation will be a tag, I wouldn't class it as a game-defining feature as all lewd-content for it will be optional. That said, I will be focusing on content for female versions of male characters primarily with the male counterparts getting their content much later. The whole transformation stuff is pivotal to the story, so even if you choose not to indulge in it yourself, there will be lots of mention of it having happened.

I like college daze, and in general love tf based games so this sounds great. There are no mental changes correct? Purely a physical tf? I know in college days you can mess with minds but as I read ingame, changes had to be safeguarded from abuse by patrons as a lore reason Id assume for not allowing that.

 

[Feebs]

I like college daze, and in general love tf based games so this sounds great. There are no mental changes correct? Purely a physical tf? I know in college days you can mess with minds but as I read ingame, changes had to be safeguarded from abuse by patrons as a lore reason Id assume for not allowing that.

Safeguards are for the regular travellers going from place to place.

The playground is a little less restrictive, but you don't have the power or authority to abuse it fully yet. That said I don't intend to do much with mental changes. There will be some slight changes simply from the fact they’ve got a different body - let’s put it down to hormones. The family males can be gender-swapped and become Lis so that of course does cause a mental change of sorts, but I assume you’re asking for something more fundamental to a person’s character than this. If you change back, the male versions do not retain any lust toward you nor recall your lewd affairs togethers. Charlie does lose the aggressive trait if you gender swap him too.

People transformed via regular travel do so with acceptance and are fully aware. Victoria, Kylie, Tiff all mentioning they gained something as part of the journey for example. However, people transformed via the playground are generally unaware of what's going on and the world accepts what's happened as if it's always been. The playground "stuff" plays a big part with the main antagonists once they are revealed.

Due to the buffer task bug you haven't really had chance to explore that yet, all you've probably seen about the playground is the conversation with Quinn, which should technically be after you're already aware of it - so I'll also make her visit conditional on some story events to be safe. There’s a line in there where the mc downplays the reach of the playground which will feel odd or been missed without prior knowledge.

That said, still an alpha build and if I have accidentally contradicted myself in the story or left some plot holes, do let me know!

 

[Dropdude]

Safeguards are for the regular travellers going from place to place.

The playground is a little less restrictive, but you don't have the power or authority to abuse it fully yet. That said I don't intend to do much with mental changes. There will be some slight changes simply from the fact they’ve got a different body - let’s put it down to hormones. The family males can be gender-swapped and become Lis so that of course does cause a mental change of sorts, but I assume you’re asking for something more fundamental to a person’s character than this. If you change back, the male versions do not retain any lust toward you nor recall your lewd affairs togethers. Charlie does lose the aggressive trait if you gender swap him too.

People transformed via regular travel do so with acceptance and are fully aware. Victoria, Kylie, Tiff all mentioning they gained something as part of the journey for example. However, people transformed via the playground are generally unaware of what's going on and the world accepts what's happened as if it's always been. The playground "stuff" plays a big part with the main antagonists once they are revealed.

Due to the buffer task bug you haven't really had chance to explore that yet, all you've probably seen about the playground is the conversation with Quinn, which should technically be after you're already aware of it - so I'll also make her visit conditional on some story events to be safe. There’s a line in there where the mc downplays the reach of the playground which will feel odd or been missed without prior knowledge.

That said, still an alpha build and if I have accidentally contradicted myself in the story or left some plot holes, do let me know!

When your next version is released, can we get a skip day option? I found as I got further in the demo, and I had hit most of the content, all I had left was building and researching and no real way to quickly skip time.

 

[Feebs]

Build 3

Well, that took a long while! Two week but it's finally here. I ended up adding a bit more content yesterday instead of actually testing, but hey, that means we got upgrades into build 3 instead of 4.

There's a rather large changelog, perhaps a bit too verbose, but despite that, the main story has not progressed (though if you had the buffer bug halting progress, there is a little more story to experience, but nothing too major). This update was mostly to slow down the jump-to-sex-too-quickly issue with some of the strays by adding an escalation mechanic while also making tasks more transparent. But, I also didn't want to create too much of a grindy feeling, so with Elsie as the exception, no lewd scene needs repeating unless you want to repeat it. And Elsie's exception is just one scene with diverging paths, she has enough other scenes that you don't even have to explore the second path if you don't want to.

Changing to this escalatiing method has allowed me to show off some of their personalities a little more, Kylie and Elsie I think especially shone through with this.

Due to the massive amount of changes I urge you only to playtest this build if you're willing to help find potentially game-breaking bugs - and probably lots of typos.

Some of the action-tasks, such as swim and bake, take a little longer to achieve now. I may remove the lewd element from them to allow earlier unlock, with the lewd scenes unlockable later. I'll await feedback before making a call on that.

Content-wise, you can get all the lewds, including all the new ones, in fewer game days than the previous version.

Spoiler: General

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Spoiler: Escalation

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Spoiler: Lewd Scenes

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Spoiler: Bug Fixes

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As you can see, LOADS going on. It's highly likely I've missed a number of bugs and typos, but I will try to jump on anything quickly with hotfixes.

I would highly recomend starting a new save due to the major changes in how the women develop now. If you load up an old save, your saved tasks (with the exception of the [Future] ones) will not update to the new ? system. That said, you should still be able to enjoy all the new lewd scenes on an old save, it just may feel a bit disjointed with the escalation rework.

The ? hints especially needed me to pass variables differently, so if you see anything like $lacy.name appearing, that's something I missed when checking myself, do let me know!

What's Next?
Most immediately, addressing the feedback and issues you guys bring to me, of course.

Beyond the story... which I hope to get back to soon... I want to add a way to handle rotas for the entire week. The micro-management I expect will be a love/hate relationship with players, and as the game progresses, managing it daily is probably not going to be as engaging or reasonable as it was at the begining. Therefore, by being able to set a weekly rota, ensuring women have enough breaks etc, you should mostly be able to macro-manage it. This is kinda the same for many games, even outside of adult entertainment, you're probably used to seeing them introduce mechanics later game to automate features introduced early. Hail Dictator is probably a decent example within this forum, which if you purchase all upgrades will completely remove the management element of the game. If you haven't played that game, btw, highly recomend you do!

I'll add the new ? system to locked scenes in the replayer.

Penalties for running out of resources - right now you can got into infinite debt, that will change so 0 is the minimum, but should you not be able to afford to pay upkeep overnight, the facilities that require upkeep will be offline the following day. I don't want to add anything too in depth or debilitating, but there needs to be some consequence.

Knuckling down with gimp or finding someone to do me a banner and logo ready for 0.1 proper.

So here's build 3:

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Additionally, I've uploaded it to a website so it can be played online. I figure while it's likely to be undergoing several updates in quick succession, it may be preferable to some people . Once on to public relases I will create update files for each major content release so the full release doesn't have to be downloaded every time. I may even look to do this for the next big content build as a test for how easily I can script it.

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The biggest reason for the hike in filesize is due to inclusion of 720p instead of 450p, that and adding some 20+ new lewd scenes with most having multiple videos. I'll be honest, I'm unconvinced there is any benefit to using 720p so will see what you guys say, but it just feels wrong to be using SD in this day and age!

 

[Dropdude]

Theres a recurring bug Im finding where you can keep getting more people or repeated people in the rota. Like right now, I have nobody in construction on any shift, but if I click on construction, rita is listed as working. If I put rita on, it shows rita in both slots.

I also found if i tried going to the gate early, like when you get the task to go and you get visited by val, I always get an error regardless of yes or no. I got around it by researching and building more, then it worked fine.

Ive attached a file that will let you see the first issue.

 

[Feebs]

Thanks Dropdude.

I found the issue with the rota. I've also now reworked the rota system so it now allows for weekly rotas, it's changed the UI quite a bit for that page, but I hope it's preferable. The bug was present in both versions - basically I used .one instead of .on in the script.
The new version also allows me to better manage and track locations, namely so I can add to the tracker where the character currently is.

You can manage up to two days on the screen at once, changing either at the top to any other day of week. The headers are sticky so if scroll down you can still see them. I liked the drag and drop method, but I think it was already a little cluttered. Now they all work similar to the rotas within location. Click a slot and assign someone new.

The weekly option means you can effectively set and forget for the most part. Each shift adds 5 fatigue and 7.5 fatigue is recovered overnigh, meaning you can have each worker work three shifts every two days using only the base values without ever having to worry about them. Upgrades and traits may change that balance.


The default is at it works now, but with the new UI. A single rota that repeats every day.

As with setting the rota within the facility, these menus also automatically take into account people's constraints and exclusions so no more accidently dragging someone on to a facility they can't work at.

I'm hopeful these will make the interface simpler to deal with and more user friendly. I will play with the CSS a bit more, but this is ultimately the direction I'm toying with atm.

 

[Feebs]

Update toward build 4.
Some UI changes - biggest change probably the epxpedition improvements, but needed a change to work with a new ability you gain this update.


Story has moved forward a bit with three major tasks-chains, new ability and first storied use of transformation.
Big sex scene added involving multiple characters (not groupsex). Not quite sure how to whack that in the scene replayer yet - probably add a mc category as seems a bit overkill to add the same scene to each LI's replayer, especially when two of them are optional during said scene.

Barely any movement on indivudal stories right now. The three side characters (Phaedra, Harley & Fiona) all got some minor content thanks to the new ability, but Phaedra is the only with anything lewd (optional) and is part of main story, not side/tracker content. Ruby's corrutpion has moved forward a little too.

Also added a night scene that should have existed on day 2. It will play retrospectively.

Currently working on a big task that effectively allows you, should you choose, to involve any permenant resident, so it's taking a bit of time to get together. It has six possible resolutions, but four are basically the same thing just with a different character.

Once that's done, I want to get some corruption events in on the family members before pushing update 4 out for testing.

 

[Feebs]

Brief update.
The big multi-option task finally done. Honestly, I doubt I'll make any tasks with this much variance again, especially not an optional one. Multiple ways to solve/experience certain tasks will continue to be a thing... just not as involved as this. There's 15 ways to solve the first task in the chain, mostly just varied dialogue based on who you speak to with a couple of exceptions. Then during the second part most characters have one or two new conversation topics to help solve it. Those initial 15 ways also change how it progresses with a couple offering solutions more quickly. Assuming no solution through other means, you'll be given five options to solve the task, or you can ignore it until it resolves itself. There are a total of eight possible ways to solve it and three ways in which it affects the story beyond the task.

Ruby's corruption progressed. Her story is a little more linear than I had intended and the corruption slower, but I'm happy with how it's unfolding. It's not up to penetration yet, but it's only a couple of key events away.

Made a banner ready for v0.1 proper. I'm no gfx artist and wasn't really sure what to do so just cobbled this together. I would like to include the household members too, but as they've yet to be penetrated, I felt it was false advertising for now.


I hope to have build 4 ready for testing this weekend. Then I'll stave off moving the content forward to concentrate on debugging and feedback as I think there's enough now that I can feasibly release 0.1 once tested.

 

[Feyschek]

Brief update.
The big multi-option task finally done. Honestly, I doubt I'll make any tasks with this much variance again, especially not an optional one. Multiple ways to solve/experience certain tasks will continue to be a thing... just not as involved as this. There's 15 ways to solve the first task in the chain, mostly just varied dialogue based on who you speak to with a couple of exceptions. Then during the second part most characters have one or two new conversation topics to help solve it. Those initial 15 ways also change how it progresses with a couple offering solutions more quickly. Assuming no solution through other means, you'll be given five options to solve the task, or you can ignore it until it resolves itself. There are a total of eight possible ways to solve it and three ways in which it affects the story beyond the task.

Ruby's corruption progressed. Her story is a little more linear than I had intended and the corruption slower, but I'm happy with how it's unfolding. It's not up to penetration yet, but it's only a couple of key events away.

Made a banner ready for v0.1 proper. I'm no gfx artist and wasn't really sure what to do so just cobbled this together. I would like to include the household members too, but as they've yet to be penetrated, I felt it was false advertising for now.
View attachment 2903573

I hope to have build 4 ready for testing this weekend. Then I'll stave off moving the content forward to concentrate on debugging and feedback as I think there's enough now that I can feasibly release 0.1 once tested.

Pretty good banner

 

[osanaiko]

One small piece of advice/wisdom from a previous dev thread that I have retained:

if your goal is to gather patrons, then consider building up a buffer of content before your initial "public" launch. this then allows you to keep up an initial higher release rate for the first few releases, which greatly improves the impression of "delivers on time" to help retain patrons, and also increases the number of times you get to be on the "new updates" list which is a primary source of new patrons. It will also give you a fallback plan if something goes wrong in reallife that prevents you working on it for a while.

 

[Feyschek]

One small piece of advice/wisdom from a previous dev thread that I have retained:

if your goal is to gather patrons, then consider building up a buffer of content before your initial "public" launch. this then allows you to keep up an initial higher release rate for the first few releases, which greatly improves the impression of "delivers on time" to help retain patrons, and also increases the number of times you get to be on the "new updates" list which is a primary source of new patrons. It will also give you a fallback plan if something goes wrong in reallife that prevents you working on it for a while.

I thought the goal of any game developer was to make a game that was fun to play. Of course, financial support is a cool thing.

Because if the game is good and the developer puts his soul into it, then the player will want to support the creator of the game.

 

[osanaiko]

I thought the goal of any game developer was to make a game that was fun to play. Of course, financial support is a cool thing.

Because if the game is good and the developer puts his soul into it, then the player will want to support the creator of the game.

Of course that's the first level goal - there's no point spending all the effort to just make a shitty game. And of course better quality will probably get more support.

But the meta-goal is to continue the development process in the longer term. And having supporters (both financial and "fans") is a strong motivator for some people. So taking the words of previous successful developers - successful in having continued to build their game for many releases AND getting some small financial support - you can setup your release pattern to put yourself in a situation where you can impress players and deliver updates for several months without getting burnout.

 

[Feyschek]

Of course that's the first level goal - there's no point spending all the effort to just make a shitty game. And of course better quality will probably get more support.

But the meta-goal is to continue the development process in the longer term. And having supporters (both financial and "fans") is a strong motivator for some people. So taking the words of previous successful developers - successful in having continued to build their game for many releases AND getting some small financial support - you can setup your release pattern to put yourself in a situation where you can impress players and deliver updates for several months without getting burnout.

Usually the option that the game becomes a cow which one is trying to milk to the maximum is too frequent. Yes, in general, it is already a proven fact that support does not increase the speed of the release of an update for the game, as many say in their posts!

Because the person needs to rest.

 

[Feebs]

I haven't done anything on that side as yet. Financial recompense for me would be a bonus rather than any sort of goal. I think releasing v0.1 with patreon/Ko-fi/whatever is a bit ambitious and presumptious for someone completely unheard of. I've modded a few adult games but nothing that would make me known to the community - I am not someone who socialises overly much either and don't engage on Discord. I'll probably wait until 0.2, 0.3 or maybe even later depending on reception so any potential supporters can at least see it's not a smash and grab.

 

[Feebs]

So I ended up spending the last two days adding more content rather than actually testing what's already there... and then when I did eventually start testing, I've found I've introduced a big bug on the rota management specific to offworld workers... trying to fix it has lead me down a rabbit hole of breaking the rota several times.

My hope to release this weekend broken with it. I guess this serves me right for trying to cram a bunch of last minute content in. I find it very difficult to stop when I'm on a roll, which often presents thoughts like "I can't just leave it in the middle of that story arc like that!" that then snowballs as the stories spread into other characters and well, here I am paying the price! Another good reason not to start with any patreonesque services, though.

On the plus side, I've added content for a bunch of side characters I hadn't originally intended to include in this release!

 

[Alcahest]

One small piece of advice/wisdom from a previous dev thread that I have retained:

if your goal is to gather patrons, then consider building up a buffer of content before your initial "public" launch.

I don't agree with this advice. I actually think it's really bad.

this then allows you to keep up an initial higher release rate for the first few releases, which greatly improves the impression of "delivers on time" to help retain patrons

So, fooling the patrons into thinking you have a higher output rate than you have, and which will only last until your buffer runs out. Just feels shady to me.

and also increases the number of times you get to be on the "new updates" list which is a primary source of new patrons.

Incorrect. The number of updates will be exactly the same, just spaced out differently because you delayed the updates to build a buffer.

It will also give you a fallback plan if something goes wrong in reallife that prevents you working on it for a while.

As long as you still have the buffer, okay, sure. Only valid point in my opinion.

Furthermore, one big drawback of building a buffer like this for your first release is that you miss out on the player feedback from the first release/updates that would allow you to improve the game for the following updates. You risk having to fix/remake a lot of your buffer content if it turns out there is a lot of shit that needs fixing. If it's something crucial, you could end up with a broken game that you may as well abandon or close down to revamp for a few months. If you have beta testers, you can greatly reduce that risk, but unless you have very many beta testers, you are bound to have some stuff that needs fixing or you will present a worse game than you could have until your (initial) buffer runs out and you can implement the fixes you should have implemented with your first updates.

 

[Feebs]

Build 4

Broadly, the update improves various systems for my use and stops saving a bunch of stuff in the gamestate that isn't needed. It advances the story quite a bit and progresses corruption for several household characters.

For this release, I've tried to make use of WinMerge to make a patch from one to the next. I've also whacked stuff on Pixeldrain.

Changelog:

Spoiler: General

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Spoiler: Character/Story Progression

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Spoiler: Bug fixes

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Save Issue
If you were partway through the vodka task in your last save it will need starting again due to separating it into parts. If you’d finished it already, there is no change.

Many of the systems have changed and I'd therefore expect this build to a bit buggier than normal, please do bear that in mind if you're looking to playtest this version.

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What's next?
I'd like to think I have enough content for 0.1 proper now, so I'll wait on feedback a little then hopefully get that out.

Once that's done, for 0.2 I'd like Millie's and Derin's stories and corruption to advance before going back to the story to reintroduce Gemma, strengthen Meriya and recruit the farmer Kimberly mentions during her story. I also need to write the dialogue for Rita's lewds at some point!

I'm a little unhappy with the filesize atm, so I think I may resize some videos and images to make them smaller. Only certain images can be viewed (at least in game) at fullsceen, there is no need for me to include the full high-res versions for those that can't. Likewise, including 720p videos seems pointless when they are viewed at 800*450.

EDIT:
Okay, I resized stuff down, and it's about half the size. While including videos at less than HD seems alien to me, it makes sense within the UI of the game.

Here's the smaller version. Unless someone has a compelling reason to continue with the higher res versions, this will be the default resolution going forward.

450p version

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[osanaiko]

Great news dev!

I've got a couple of edit tasks in my queue already but will take another look at Gateway once I have a chance, and give what feedback I can.

 

[Feebs]

I've found it very difficult not to keep working on the project recently to the point I started a side project a week or two ago, much smaller in scope and likely won't really mention overly much until it's much further down the line. But basically, gives me something to work on if I'm feeling that way inclined, but have only just released something and wanting to prioritize bug fixes/address post-release issues for Gateway. Once it's further developed, I'll start sharing a bit more, but for now it's a project to keep my mind focused during downtime on Gateway. Though, I will say it connects to this game, the side character Ella's planned substory in Gateway is basically the trigger for how the events of the side-project unfold.

I also threw myself into gaming to try and resist the temptation to work on this! Anyway, while I've managed to resist adding more content, I have nonetheless fixed a few bugs with build 4 and lots of typos. I installed an extension that allows me to grammar check in the live environment, my IDE only has spell check... and wow the number of times I use 'you' instead of 'your' and vice versa or put 'the' twice in a row, especially in the earlier content, is sickening!

Anyhow, once I've done a full pass of that, I'll get 0.1 out proper. I doubt I'll catch everything due to the variance the game has, but it should reduce it significantly and make it harder to make such mistakes in future content. I hope to be in a position to release during the course of next week.